Big Three still in the chase to host Regionals

Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Southern Miss remain in position to host NCAA baseball Regionals. All three face crucial contests this weekend.

n Third-ranked MSU (27-13, 10-8) travels to Alabama (24-18, 9-9) at Sewell-Thomas Stadium in a series that began Thursday.

n Ninth-ranked Ole Miss (31-11, 10-8) plays host to LSU (27-14, 10-8) in a series that also opened Thursday at Swayze Field.

n No. 14 Southern Miss (30-12) looks to stay atop Conference-USA, traveling to face 17th ranked Florida Atlantic at 5:30 p.m. Friday.

Ole Miss, MSU and LSU are tied for second place in the SEC West, two games behind Texas A&M. The Crimson Tide is one game behind the Rebels, Bulldogs and Tigers. The Ole Miss-LSU and MSU-Alabama series winners will be in position to challenge the Aggies.

Meanwhile, the Golden Eagles are a game ahead of Rice in the C-USA Standings after taking two of three last week. FAU is two games behind Southern Miss.

Game one of the Southern Miss-FAU series is a matchup of unbeaten pitchers. Right-hander Cord Cockrell (7-0, 2.88 ERA) will be on the mound for the Golden Eagles against Marc Stewart, who has a 5-0 mark. Former Oak Grove standout Kirk McCarty (3-0, 3.23) will start opposite Sean Labsan (5-1, 1.50).

Jake Sandlin is hitting a team-leading .396 with 63 hits for the Golden Eagles. Tim Lynch is next at .364 with a team-high 46 RBI. Taylor Braley has 10 homers.

MSU's Jake Mangum is hitting a team-high .429, second in the SEC. Behind Datoka Hudson (5-3), MSU's pitching staff is sixth nationally in strikeouts per nine innings (9.1, 5th in SEC).

This story was originally published April 28, 2016 at 10:34 PM with the headline "Big Three still in the chase to host Regionals ."